The Vivarium Novum Academy is a place where the atmosphere of the Renaissance academia comes back to life. Walking through the doors of Villa Falconieri in Frascati our high school students were warmly welcomed. Every year the Vivarium Novum Academy hosts 40 talented students on scholarships from all over the world with the aim of deepening the knowledge of the classical culture.

The students, guided by their class teachers, were introduced to a fascinating and enchanting world where only Latin and Ancient Greek are the spoken languages within the Academy’s walls.

The academy is a connection between modern and historical times. It is based on the Hans Henning Oberg method. Oberg is a Danish Latin scholar who teaches the classical languages as living languages.

The students had also the great opportunity to listen to some chants, or “carmina,” in Latin and Greek which were arranged by the academy students.

The academy encourages not only personal growth, but also artistic and sports activities as part as the goal “mens sana in corpore sano”.

Back to where it all began…Beziers. Where the RSHM congregation was born and the Marymount Community came to life. Beziers is much more than a dot on the map, it’s the heart and soul of a worldwide community.

There are no borders to the Marymount mission, started by Father Gailhac and Mother St. Jean in this quaint town. Their vision is still alive today and inspires all the Marymount schools.

The weeklong Beziers spiritual retreat is a time to consolidate everyone’s hard work and their devotion, offering participants an opportunity to share values, visions, and experiences.

For four of our teachers and staff members, this was their first time in Béziers and it was a rich and emotional experience. “It was extremely emotional to contemplate Father Gailhac’s relic in the crypt. We really felt connected to one another thanks to the charisma and passion of all the RSHM sisters who led the retreat.”

The retreat is an integral part of our school, reinforcing the spirit of communion that is then brought back to each individual school worldwide.

31 October 2017/by

http://marymount.it/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/IMG_2055.jpg19362592marymounthttp://marymount.it/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/LOGO-MARYMOUNT.pngmarymount2017-10-31 21:24:572017-10-31 21:26:12A retreat in the place where everything started

Learning by doing. Awarded at the International Festival of Creativity, Cannes, exhibited at the MOMA in New York and at the MIT: who are we talking about? Cubetto, of course, a super-innovative learning tool for computer programming used here at Marymount.
With a workshop in which the kindergarten students had the opportunity to discover much more than a simple toy.
Cubetto(invented by Filippo Yacob, student of Massimo Banzi) was conceived by an Italian start-up based in London. It is a friendly wooden robot with no screen. It has a console to be programmed through a set of 16 colored blocks (which identify the movements) and a plan (map).
Every map is an adventure that Cubetto is asked to explore, for example visiting a castle or mountains that can be only reached with the help of the children. They have to identify the correct sequence, through logic reasoning, and set the movements, thus learning the first basic steps to coding.
What was the result? A multisensory experience, a real innovation in kindergarten teaching with a playful approach, which can also be used in primary school with age-appropriate changes.
The children involved were very curious about Cubetto and immediately started to find creative solution towards the “correct direction,” processing concepts and sharing solutions to determine commands.

Educational robotics has landed in our school as Cubetto, the programmable friend that already has enthusiastic admirers.

Who is a leader and What are the leadership skills required to become a great leader? Many people today aspire to be leaders but only a few question themselves on the real meaning of this word.

Mrs. Monica Terra, the secondary school principal is responsible for the Marymount Network projects and explains that this year 6 students from middle school and 2 from our new high school participated in the RSHM Student Leadrship Retreat in Paris, from September 27th to October 1st, focused on “Educating and learning for a peaceful world”. Our 8 students were chosen by their classmates at the beginning of the school year to represent the school. They were asked to choose students that they thought had the necessary leadership skills.

In Marymount School Paris all the students participating had the chance to, share with each other ideas and experiences on what it really means to be a leader today, in this difficult Globalization Era. All students agreed that the experience was extremely positive and gave them ideas for reflection and action.

Flaminia:” The leadership experience helps build your character, helps you think differently and teaches you to be responsible and to be a good example for your peers.”

Diletta: ”It is something that enriches you now and for the future. It sharpens your capacity of listening to others”.

Giulia: “In all the activities proposed we had the possibility to get personally involved to experience directly what it means to help others. For example we prepared and distributed meals for the homeless.“

Lisa: “While sharing our experiences with the other Marymount we also learned more about our school history.”

Elena: ”We had the possibility to reflect on what we can do to improve different aspects of our school life and on what we should carry out during the school year.”

Oliver: “It was a very usefull encounter: it was challenging to put into practice our ideas and face concrete commitments.”

These students will now have the task to pass on what they have learned to the first and second grade middle school students as they live their daily school life at istituto Marymount.

Mrs. Terra confirms that all our school network projects are centred and focused on the personal and spiritual growth of each and every student.

On October 4th the 4 and 5 year old children celebrated Saint Francis of Assisi with their usual joy and enthusiasm. They gathered in the Chapel for the “ceremony of the seeds”, singing and praying togehter with their teachers. The idea of the “ceremony of the seeds” is to connect the celebration and the activities they did to our Goal of the Year: “to encourage and affirm personal growth.” The children started their work in class preparing bulletin boards where they put their names written in seeds. It was explained to them that the seeds nurtured with love and natural elements, such as water, soil, sun and air, will grow and become a lush and adult plant. In class they also listened to Saint Francis vocational and spiritual life stories which captured their interest and curiosity.